Speedship by WWEX
Unifying Two Broker Systems and a Company Culture Through Design
Role: Design Lead – Product Architecture & User Research
Impact: National research initiative · Lead team of 8 · Org-wide design principles · Laid foundation for $4B merger
In 2018, Worldwide Express (WWEX) merged with Unishippers, bringing together two logistics broker networks. With the merger came an unification effort of their shipment systems—covering both small parcel and less-than-truckload (LTL)—into a single, scalable platform. It needed to support white-labeled experiences and adapt to a wide range of customer segments.
However, early development planning revealed a deeper issue: leadership lacked a clear understanding of just who the customers they intended to serve were, and how they intended to use their product to enhance customers and internal operations alike.
My Role
Led product design strategy and architecture, serving as the primary design partner on the Speedship initiative.
Co-led a national research initiative, guiding user interviews, contextual inquiries and affinity diagramming across the U.S.
Developed foundational design assets that transformed the organization’s understanding of its users including architecture and systems
Influenced executive mindset and cross-functional priorities, ensuring product strategy was informed by external realities vs internal assumptions.
This was an organizational identity challenge, and I helped reposition the entire initiative to keep users at the center.
The Challenge
WWEX had a long list of desired features but lacked alignment around a shared vision for the user. With two legacy platforms to reconcile, the team faced multiple pressures:
Resolve conflicting assumptions about who the users were
Reduce risks in a high-investment development roadmap
Establish scalable workflows to support future expansion into Full Truckload (FTL) shipments
Bridge cultural differences between two merged organizations
Initially, executives were confident in their perspective. Research was seen as optional. My goal swiftly became to shift that thinking and mitigate risk in development cycles.
Strategic Insight
Over two months, our research team visited offices and clients across the country. We interviewed customers from small businesses to enterprise freight managers, and observed internal teams handling onboarding and support.
The findings were consistent—and impossible to ignore:
Users didn’t want more features. They needed better orientation and clearer guidance
In-product onboarding was ineffective, creating blind spots during account setup and training
Support teams were overwhelmed, fielding unecessary volumes of tickets caused by poor user experience.
These insights directly contradicted leadership assumptions. But when early contextual data points were presented, the data could no longer be dismissed.
Execution
Co-led nationwide discovery and testing, conducting interviews, synthesis and usability tests.
Synthesized research into actionable personas, which became reference points for product and executive teams
Created a “pocket persona” handbook, making user needs accessible and tangible for daily decision-making
Defined core design principles, linking them directly to user needs uncovered in research
Facilitated alignment workshops, re-centering the product roadmap on high-impact workflows
Mapped future-ready interaction models for Full Truckload (FTL) functionality, supporting long-term platform scale
Outcomes
Design principles became embedded in the culture, used across meetings, printed on posters, and adopted beyond the product org
Executive and stakeholder alignment shifted, with product planning and prioritization now grounded in user needs
Reduced onboarding friction and improved support operations, as clearer workflows led to fewer misaligned interactions
Set the foundation for WWEX’s eventual merger with GlobalTranz, enabling the formation of a $4B logistics platform
Reflection
This project was about more than building a unified product. It was about building a unified vision.
By reframing discovery as a strategic asset—not just a design step—we helped WWEX understand its users, recalibrate its roadmap, and set the stage for significant growth.